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Friday, 12 September 2014

Hanging out with friends

The casual poses of the men in the prompt photo made me think immediately of this photograph of my Uncle Ken and his NZ Air Force mates. I've featured it before so I will just refer you to what I said about it back then, in my tribute to Ken which you can find here, if you didn't already read or don't remember it. Ken is on the right, smoking not drinking, but I think there's a similarity all the same. Suffice to say, all four were killed in World War 2.

I haven't found a lot of casual photos in my albums, but the next one sort of fits the bill. The label just says 'Cass, 1945' which does not mean much to me, but I think these men could be Air Force trainees, possibly out on some exercise in the Cass area in Canterbury NZ, because they look to be wearing khaki. My lanky father Ian Cruickshank is on the far right. He and another fellow are pulling on a rope, perhaps as a way to manoeuvre a pile of wood? The others less than helpfully have their feet up on the pile, and generally look either cheerful or bemused. Conscription was in force in New Zealand during World War 2, and while Ian was at university and luckily didn't have to serve overseas, he did serve 133 days within NZ in the Air Force before being discharged in 1945. He was 21 when the war ended, a year younger than Ken would have been, had he not been killed 2 years earlier.

To even things up between the sexes, here are a couple of my mother and her friends, one at the beach and one more formal at a wedding, but still having fun. Again these photos are from the 1940s.

Jean standing above her friends, who are skylarking on the rocks and sand at Piha Beach near Auckland NZ.The girl on the right has something in her right hand, but it's not a bottle or a cigarette packet, I'm sure.

Let them eat cake! Jean is at far left, and the bride Margaret is second from right. The lady in the centre could be her mother, because she looks older and is not named in Jean's album. The other three were good friends of Jean, and I think Colleen, the lady in front on the right, is the same person who is wearing shorts in the other photo. They all look to be enjoying a happy occasion.

Here's a fun link to finish, even if it is an advertisement for Irish whiskey : http://youtu.be/h81oiF7VIOwPretty short and sweet from me this week, but for more poses, casual or otherwise from other Sepians, just click here.

What great casual photos! How sobering to know all those young men died in the war. The Air Force seemed to be the "sexy" branch, but their mortality rate was horrendous. I was amused by one group pulling on the logs and the others propping their feet up on it.